Lashlee takes dominating lead at Old Hickory
Local pro ends day three with 4 1/2-pound lead
GALLATIN, Tenn. – At the close of the day-two weigh-in at the Wal-Mart FLW Series on Old Hickory, local pro Sam Lashlee of Camden, Tenn., commented that he felt a mother lode of bass were gathering out on the channel ledges of the Cumberland River, and it would be just a matter of time before he found them.
Well, Friday he found them. Lashlee brought in the tournament’s biggest bag of bass – 17 pounds, 10 ounces – to take a commanding lead with a three-day total of 43 pounds even.
“I started the tournament fishing some of the shallower drops in the bays and creeks,” Lashlee said. “But today I moved out on the main river channel and stayed there all day. Right now, these fish are as deep as they get on this lake. I caught one of my best fish from 20 feet of water.”
Lashlee is catching his fish by dragging a 1/2-ounce football-head jig slowly across the bottom. If that technique sounds familiar, it might be because that’s how Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., won the Kentucky Lake FLW Tour event two weeks ago.
“This lake is usually about two or three weeks behind Kentucky Lake because it’s cooler,” Lashlee said, adding that he fishes Kentucky Lake frequently as well. “When the FLW Tour was there a couple of weeks ago, those fish were just getting out on the main drops. When they first get to the main river drops, they’re recovering from the spawn, and they’re lethargic, almost sickly, and they like something slow. Right now Old Hickory is almost in the same phase of the postspawn as Kentucky Lake was two weeks ago.”
From here, Lashlee likes his chances for the $100,000 win tomorrow.
“But this is fishing, and anything can happen,” he added. “They pulled current pretty good today, and that helped my deep spots. They might not pull a bit of current tomorrow, which could hurt me.”
Brown digs into second
Michael Brown of Rocky Face, Ga., is in second place with a three-day total of
38 pounds, 8 ounces.
Brown continued to work his back-of-the-creek, shallow crankbait pattern today with success.
“I’m basically fishing the last bluff walls or channel swing banks in the backs of creeks,” Brown said. “My boat is sitting in 10 or 12 feet, and I’m paralleling the walls, catching fish in 4 to 6 feet. Whenever my crankbait hits a rock or stump out off the bluff, that’s when I get my bites. It’s a pattern that’s worked well in the fall for me here, and for some reason it’s working now.”
Wendlandt claws his way to third
Every day Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, climbs a little higher toward the top rung. Today he moved to his best position of the week, third, with a three-day total of 36 pounds, 8 ounces.
Wendlandt is running a dock pattern on Old Hickory. He is fishing shallow docks with a spinnerbait, a jig and a jerkbait.
“I think the fish I’m catching were probably feeding on shad during the shad spawn, which likely occurred here a week or two ago,” Wendlandt said. “The shad spawn is pretty much over, but it’s like these bass are still hanging around the docks, wondering where all the shad went.”
Wendlandt noted he has to work hard to get his bites.
“It’s not as easy as it would be if the shad spawn was still going on,” he said. “I have to get the lure way up under the dock to a certain point before I get a bite.”
Daves fourth
Woo Daves of Spring Grove, Va., is in fourth with a three-day total of 
35 pounds, 4 ounces.
He weighed in four bass today for 9 pounds, 11 ounces, and he caught half of those on one cast.
“I could see the bass chasing minnows, but I couldn’t get them to eat topwater,” he said. “So I threw a double-fluke rig out there and caught a 2 1/2 (-pounder) on the front Fluke and a 3-1/2 on the back Fluke.”
Clausen fifth
Luke Clausen of Spokane, Wash., continues to be red hot, qualifying for yet another top-10 with a three-day total of 35 pounds, 2 ounces.
Clausen is junk-fishing to its fullest extent.
“I’ve got 12 rods on the deck, and every day I just go fishing,” he said. “I’ve caught fish on just about everything, but the best players have been a Trick Worm, a Senko and a crankbait.”
“The only identifiable pattern I’ve been able to put together is milfoil patches in the upper end of the lake and isolated wood in the lower end; that’s about as complex as it gets.”
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 to fish the fourth and final day Saturday:
6th: David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., with a three-day total of 35-1
7th: Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala., with a three-day total of 34-8
8th: Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va., with a three-day total of 34-8
9th: Art Berry of Hemet, Calif., with a three-day total of 34-7
10th: Gary Clouse of La Vergne, Tenn., with a three-day total of 33-14
The final day begins tomorrow at 6 a.m. at Bull Creek Marina on Old Hickory.